


I Like you a Latte

by redundants



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Barista Lance, Customer Keith, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith, M/M, Pick Up Lines, Profanity, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), also she gets no sleep??, bi lance, have fun reading this, klance, no coran or allura sorry, oops sorry about that but that's referenced occcasionally, pidge and hunk work at the coffee shop too, pidge doesn't eat enough, pining lance, pretty damn gay, shiro is keith's best friend, the author is an attention whore so you should comment, they're not actually getting into a relationship in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 13:15:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12233595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redundants/pseuds/redundants
Summary: Lance is a barista at the local coffee shop.Keith is a customer. Lance's favorite customer.Things can only escalate from there.





	I Like you a Latte

There was a coffee shop on Lion Lane. The coffee shop wasn't that big; it could pass off as a shed if it was placed into someone's backyard. The outside was painted a lovely shade of brown, and windows dotted the edges of the coffee shop. Nobody knew exactly how long it had been there, but the inside was a little dusty and the windows were fogged, as if hundreds of different children had rubbed their fingers along it. There was a large counter in the middle of the shop; it had the same width of the room along and took up almost half of the visible space. The other half was taken up by chairs placed strategically around to ensure the most customers.

The coffee shop was empty; after all, it was barely six in the morning. It had just opened, but the boy at the counter knew it wouldn't be empty for long. He had light brown hair that barely grazed over the top of his eyes, and a dashing smirk on his face that looked like it had been stuck there forever. He had dark eyes that flitted around the dawn-lit room, and a smile that seemed to light up the darkened area. He was waiting for someone; that was clear by his impatiently tapping fingers on the wood counter.

"Waiting for that guy again, Lance?" A short girl walked out of the back of the shop, an area that customers wouldn't know existed unless they had been there themselves. It was quite well hidden, so it gave the boy, Lance, a shock when the girl walked out. She snickered at seeing his fingers drumming against the counter, walking over to lean against it.

Lance's cheeks heated up. He was waiting for 'that guy' again, but could you really blame him? That guy was certainly something. Lance let out a small, dreamy sigh before turning back to the girl. "Shut it, Pidge." he muttered, ruffling her ginger-brown hair with his long fingers. She slapped his hand away, attempting to smooth down her naturally curly hair. 

"So, that's a yes?" Pidge was holding a green mug, decorated with the words 'inspire', 'create', and 'innovate'. She took a sip from it and grimaced a little, pulling the mug away and setting it down on the counter. Lance instinctively placed it on a coaster, checking that it didn't stain the wood before turning back to Pidge. He could smell the coffee; black coffee, just like he had expected. It was the only type that Pidge would ever drink. Not that she liked it; it was just one of the things you did at a coffee shop. Drink coffee.

"What do you think?" Lance replied vaguely, blinking the sleep away that was still taking over his eyes. He had woken up at five a.m. purposely to hopefully get here before the other baristas. He had tried this multiple times, but it never worked. Pidge was always here before him. He didn't even know if she slept, based on how late she stayed up at night and how early she got up. Maybe she just lived here. Lance didn't probe her about it; Pidge wasn't one to share excessive information.

The door opened with a shrieking sound and Lance leaned forward, hopefully peering at the door to see if it was the boy. Keith. That was his name. Lance had written it on coffee cups so many times. He had even heard his friend, who was with him most of the time, mention his last name. Kogane. That was a nice last name. Keith Kogane had a nice name. Lance liked it quite a lot.

Instead of Keith stumbling in through the door, it was a chubby boy with dark hair and a goofy grin. Hunk. Lance's best friend. He broke out into a grin and beckoned Hunk by waving, opening the gate that seperated the rest of the store from behind the counter. Hunk made his way to the counter, shoving his way through the small open space in the gate and yawning, extending his arms in a long stretch. "Did I miss anything important?"

"Just Lance pining over Keith again. You know, the usual." Lance elbowed Pidge in the stomach after she said the words, his teeth clenched. Pidge stumbled back, grabbing at her stomach and trying to steady herself by leaning against the counter. When she finally got to her feet again, she managed to give a smug grin to Lance. Lance muttered something under his breath and had the urge to push her over again, but didn't thanks to the warning glance that Hunk gave him.

Lance huffed and turned away from PIdge. He mumbled something under his breath that the others couldn't catch. It was something like 'so what'. "Guys, Kei-" he paused. "People are going to start coming in soon. Is everything ready?" he asked, fretting over just the smallest detail in case it would ruin his chances with Keith. Lance honestly didn't know why he felt such an attraction to the customer, but he did. 

"They're ready, Dad." Pidge muttered, sticking out her tongue at the last word and grabbing some wipes from under the counter. She hummed as she quickly wiped them down, the efficiency of her work causing the counters to be sparkling within a minute. She tossed the wipe into the trash can that sat behind the counter, resting her elbows on the shiny clean surface. It was already starting to smudge again.

Lance made sure the coffee pots had no cracks and that the machines were in working order before adjusting his thin jacket, glancing out the window that was placed on the door. This wasn't the only time that Lance got to see Keith, of course, but it was the one time that he was guaranteed to talk to him. He could tell just by looking at the boy that Keith wasn't a very social person. He spoke as few words as possible, but each word was carefully chosen and filled to the brim with intensity before being spoken.

Keith could say any word and it would blow Lance away with the amount of feeling put into that one word. Keith had said 'hello' to Lance... maybe once outside the coffee shop? They were bound to cross paths every once in a while, going to the same college and all, but both boys were usually in a rush so they would rarely exchange words. However, here in the coffee shop, Lance could talk to Keith all he wanted. He had to savor every word in the time between the latter arriving and him leaving.

The door was swung open, distracting Lance from his thoughts. Pidge and Hunk both stopped adjusting the settings on the coffee machines to turn and look at the door. Each of the workers greeted the person even before they showed their face; it was customary for their restaurant and they could have their pay docked for forgetting to greet a customer.

However, Lance's eyes stayed trained on the door. He recognized that shadow from the countless hours of studying other shadows as they walked through the door. There was only one person who matched the perfect shape of that shadow; Keith Kogane. He stepped through the door and suddenly Lance felt a million times less confident than he did just a few seconds before.

What was it that jolted Lance every time he saw Keith? His mullet? No, that couldn't be it. Lance didn't particularly like mullets, but Keith made it look easy to wear one of those. It covered up his neck, which was pale and shaped like someone had spent hours making sure every little detail was in place. He had dark, large eyes, framed by eyelashes that could give Lance a heart attack as soon as one of them fluttered.

Lance could melt under Keith's gaze, and it took every atom within him to keep him standing. This was the norm for Lance. Watch Keith show up, give him his coffee and try to make conversation, then watch as he walked out the door. He straightened up as Keith's gaze scanned the counter and skimmed over Lance's face. He approached the other boy and looked up at the menu hanging on the wall near the back, even though Lance doubted he needed to look at it based on the amount of times he had been here.

"Hello, may I take your order?" Lance asked politely, attempting to maintain the perfect amount of eye contact with Keith without seeming stalkerish or ignorant. Keith scanned the menu one more time before nodding and beginning to speak. 

Keith's voice had a rough edge to it, but it still seemed soft on the inside. Like one of those butterscotch candies; you bite into them and they seem tough, but after you keep them for a while they'll start to melt. Lance wished that Keith would trust him enough to let him see that soft side. Not that it would happen. Or at least for a while. "Could I just get a Cappuccino?" Keith requested.

"Sure." Lance grabbed a paper cup from a rack on the wall under the menu and started to prepare the coffee. It took him about three minutes; two of which were procrastinating so he could spend more time with Keith before he left. He fumbled with the cap, internally cursing his clumsiness as he struggled to get the cap on. When he finally managed to fasten it he hurried to give the cup to Keith, worried that he might be irritated. Instead, Lance could swear he saw a flicker of an amused smile on his face. "Keith, right?"

Keith nodded the confirmation of his name, not seeming all that surprised that Lance knew his name. The former showed up daily, sometimes up to three times a day. He would be surprised if Lance didn't remember it by now. Little did Keith know that it would be impossible for Lance to forget his name. Lance pulled out a sharpie from a drawer in the counter and wrote the word 'Keith' on the cup, making sure to swirl the ends of his letters as he carefully wrote down his name.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Lance wrote something else on the cup. The words 'I seem to have lost my number... can I have yours?'. He regretted writing them down as soon as the sharpie dotted a small heart under the question mark, but the deed was done. The words had been written in permanent marker, and there was no turning back now. Keith raised an eyebrow to why it was taking so long to write his name.

Keith reached an arm out and took the cup from Lance, but not before their fingers brushed. It wasn't a big amount of contact; just the tip of Lance's fingers brushing against Keith's knuckles as he handed the cup to him, but it felt like the air in between them was charged with electricity. Or at least to Lance. He wasn't sure if Keith felt the same thing, so he just smiled at the customer and turned back to the counter.

Lance watched out of the corner of his eye as Keith went to go sit at one of the tables. He wanted to tear his gaze away, but he also wanted to see Keith's reaction. Lance's eyes might have been decieving him, but he swore that he could see a grin appear on Keith's face. Pidge nudged Lance as she walked up to stand by him, seeing the panic on Lance's face.

She didn't have to ask what was wrong. Pidge seemed to know all, so she just gave him a sympathetic look, glanced between him and Keith, and started to watch the door again as more customers piled in. The greetings left Lance's mouth without him having to think about it, which was good. Lance didn't think he could think about anything but the expression on Keith's face.

The other boy looked like he was reading the cup multiple times before deciding on what to do. Lance didn't have a chance to see what Keith's next choice of action was, however, thanks to the customers that were almost attacking the counter with their orders of coffee. He started to work, his head lowered to avoid everyone's gaze except for Pidge's, who he was forced to meet because she was shorter than him.

A few hours later, when the coffee shop morning madness seemed to have died down, Keith shut his laptop and placed it in a red and black bag that Lance hadn't noticed before. He started to walk out the door, but not before laying something face-down onto the table. Lance rushed to the coffee table, pushing in Keith's chair when he had left the shop and wiping the table clean with a wipe from his pocket.

It was time to read the note. Lance couldn't put it off any longer. The note was only a little more than two square inches, and the handwriting was very neat and small. Lance read over the note.

'I like you a latte.  
Call me?  
-Keith Kogane'

The note was completed by a phone number, presumably Keith's, scrawled messily on the bottom of the note. Lance instantly tucked it inside his uniform pocket, a smile stretching across his face as he nearly pranced back behind the counter. He completed the rest of the orders that came into the shop quickly and efficiently, and the customers had all left a few hours past noon.

Lance raced out of the shop and behind it, sitting down against the brick wall and typing in the phone number to his phone. He pressed the call button and the phone rang a few times before a voice, Keith's voice, came in through the phone. 

"Hello?"


End file.
